Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
System requirements: Windows XP SP 3/Vista/Win 7/Win 8, 1.8 GHz Core2Duo E6300/2.1 GHz Athlon 64 X2 4050+ or better CPU, 2 GB RAM, 512 MB GeForce 8600/Radeon HD 2600 XT or better graphics card, DirectX 9.0c,10 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Action-Adventure
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now

Let’s face it: Lara Croft isn’t an interesting character. Impossibly athletic, remarkably good-looking. There’s no problem she couldn’t overcome by climbing on walls and shooting endangered animals. She didn’t have a personality, she had breasts. She was part sex symbol, part wish fulfillment, and entirely plastic. Now that the franchise has creatively bankrupted itself for a second time, developer Crystal Dynamics has decided to go back and rework Lara from the ground up. Just as film director Christopher Nolan saved Batman from decades of one-dimensional edginess, Crystal Dynamics has breathed new life and humanity into a previously synthetic (and sexist) character. But to make this new Lara, first they had to put her through hell.

Tomb Raider isn’t just traumatic, it’s outright terrifying at times. After a violent shipwreck, Lara wakes to find herself bound and hanging from the ceiling of a creepy cave, complete with mounds of skulls and the remains of human sacrifices. After freeing herself (by setting herself on fire), she gets impaled on a nasty piece of rebar. The first half of Tomb Raider borders on survival horror. It uses log bridges and wolves where Resident Evil trundles out scary tentacle monsters, and because the very environment itself is the enemy, there’s no fighting against the “dark hoard,” which creates an existential horror. Crystal Dynamics didn’t hold back, and the game is filled with wincing, jaw-dropping moments. Squeamish people beware.

It’s pretty difficult to talk about an action-adventure game such as Tomb Raider without mentioning Uncharted, and yeah, they’re fairly similar games. You nimbly maneuver through the environment, climbing, leaping and crawling through the landscape. The levels really open up at times and are utterly filled with collectables and upgrades. The largest puzzles are optional chambers with rewards squirreled away behind ancient contraptions. If you want to spend your time and get 100-percent completion, you’ll really get your money’s worth. Combat is scattered throughout and fluid. Unlike Uncharted, it isn’t as constant and usually requires a good bit of stealth. Once enemies are nearby, Lara unslings her weapon and ducks into a crouch. If you stick to cover and take your time, you can take out a guard squad without much worry. But if you slip up, they’ll light flares and call in reinforcements.

The combat works great, largely because of the smooth cover system. Anytime you’re next to a chest-high wall or outcropping, Lara simply crouches behind it. No attaching, no manual button to press, nothing. It seems like a silly thing to harp on, but the simplicity of this one feature lets you plan your ambush assaults without frustration. This same principle applies to pretty much all the mechanics. If you get stuck, you can use Survival Mode to highlight every nearby element in the environment. Nothing’s more frustrating than trying to solve a puzzle with half the pieces. The leaping and climbing feel better than ever, much improved upon the clunky feel that even the previous generation of Tomb Raider games had.

While the controversial E3 trailer definitely captures the horror, it misses the redeeming second act. Once she realizes what she can do, Lara stops reacting and starts acting. Instead of running away from the cultists, she dares them to try to kill her while she stalks them from the shadows. Now she’s risen up to the challenge and is ready to take on any ancient mythological power. Her confidence is genuine because we’ve viscerally seen/felt/played the truly horrifying obstacles.

It would be silly to call Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy the best Batman movies out there. As far as most people are concerned, they’re the only Batman movies. Similarly, Tomb Raider doesn’t just reboot the franchise, it wipes the previous games out of existence. With a powerful, thematic story and a strong female lead who rivals Mirror’s Edge’s Faith, Tomb Raider transcends its action-adventure genre. It’s too early to call Game of the Year, but if this doesn’t make it on some best-of lists, then there’d better be a darn good reason for it.

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